The King’s Speech

January 31, 2015

This is an interesting prospect; a play that was written as a play with scenes intercutting like a film, became a film and we are now doing it as a play again. The audience will have the visual style of the film strongly embedded in their minds and yet theatrically it is impossible and not desirable to recreate all those locations. Working with director Roxanna Silbert we have been treating it as we would a Shakespeare on an open stage, focusing on the characters and their inner narrative rather than the sumptuousness of their interiors. Some scenes are barely 30 seconds long and it would be impossible to create a drawing room in York house in its entirety for that one moment before cutting straight to Logue’s (the therapist) room . So we are relying on an abstract art deco wooden panelled space , the floor pattern fans out from a central spot which is where both Bertie and Logue have to face their fears either in the monstrous microphone or the failed auditions that Logue subjects himself too. Into this we bring the essentials of furniture and rely on Oli Fenwick to focus our attention through light. Tec starts next week…